The Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM) was established in 1859 as the home of the Philharmonic Society of Brooklyn. Its first facility, at 176-194 Montague Street in Brooklyn Heights, housed a large theatre seating 2,200, a smaller concert hall, dressing and chorus rooms, and a vast "baronial" kitchen. After the building burned to the ground on November 30, 1903, plans were made to relocate to a new facility in the then-fashionable neighborhood of Fort Greene. Herts & Tallant, a noted theatre architecture firm, designed the new Italian Renaissance-inspired building, which features polychromatic details and entrances decorated with figures singing and playing musical instruments. A series of opening events were held in the fall of 1908 culminating with a grand gala evening featuring Geraldine Farrar and Enrico Caruso in a Metropolitan Opera production of Charles Gounod's "Faust". The Met would continue to present seasons in Brooklyn through 1921.

In the years following World War II, the population center of Brooklyn shifted and BAM's audience and support base declined. In 1967 Harvey Lichtenstein was appointed executive director and during the 32 years that Lichtenstein was BAM's leader, BAM experienced a renaissance. The building has been renovated for new use and is located in the Brooklyn Academy of Music Historical District, designated by the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission in 1978.

The Austin organ in the Concert Hall of the Brooklyn Academy of Music was originally built as opus 182 in 1907 for the Jamestown Exposition, a tercentennial celebration of the 1607 founding of Norfolk, Va. Located at Sewell's Point, an area that proved to be more accessible by water than land, the exposition opened on April 26 and closed on December 1, 1907. Due to poor access and low attendance, the exposition was a financial disaster. Only 10 years later, prompted by World War I, the land was redeveloped as the Norfolk Naval Base.

Auditorium - Jamestown Exposition

As the official organ of the exposition, the Austin organ was installed in the auditorium building where it was used for more than 300 recitals. The organ received the "highest award and gold medal," and pictures of both sides of the medal were proudly featured in a special brochure about the organ and also in Austin brochures. A semi-circular organ case, built at the rear of the stage by the Exposition Company, included front pipes provided by Austin and finished in French leaf gold bronze. Austin rented the organ to the Jamestown Exposition Company for $3,000, and the contract stated that fee could be applied to the purchase price of $10,000.
The Exposition Company did not purchase the organ.

In March 1908, the organ was sold to the Brooklyn Academy of Music for $12,000. Austin moved the organ to Brooklyn in 1908, assigning it as opus 211, where it was installed in the Concert Hall. This organ no longer exists.

This unified organ was built in 1905 and placed on exhibition in the Austin Organ Co. & Works in Hartford, Conn. It was later sold to the Brooklyn Academy of Music and erected on the stage in the Opera House theatre. Austin equipped the organ with a "Self-playing Attachment by which solo effects are obtainable." The organ no longer exists.